Display dispensers are commonly used in retail and grocery store settings to organize items on store shelves and move those items forward toward the front of the shelf so that customers can easily see and reach the item. Each display dispenser contains a certain type of product, such as a bottle or box of pills. The product is placed in an upright position on the display, preferably with its label facing forward so that the customer can more readily identify the product. Items are placed on the display in a column. When the frontmost item is removed, the display causes the column of items to move forward toward the front of the display so that the next item in the column becomes the frontmost item. The display dispenser can be sloped forward so that the items slide forward under their own weight toward the front of the display, or the display dispenser can include a pusher mechanism to push the products forward.
Gravity fed display dispensers rely on the weight of the item to move it forward. These displays are frequently used for heavier or denser products. The product is contained in a relatively rigid container with a smooth bottom surface such as cans of soda, gallons of milk or bottles of pills. The rear end of the dispenser is elevated so that its supporting bottom surface slopes forward. The dispenser can include a tray supported by a rack that angles the tray forward. The weight of the item produces enough forward force to overcome its friction with the tray and allow the item to slide forward. A conventional gravity fed display dispenser is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,070 the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.
Display dispensers with push mechanisms are typically designed for lighter weight items that can be easily moved along a horizontal surface with relatively little force. The displays are robustly designed for repeated use. When the item being sold is depleted, the display is refilled. The tray is typically made of plastic and has a multi-piece construction to form its walls and bottom or support surface. The walls of the display are formed by solid planks or plates of relatively thick material such as plastic. The bottom surface has a similar solid construction. The display dispensers typically have a complex construction to allow them to be assembled to hold a variety of different product shapes and sizes. The pusher mechanism is integrally molded to the walls or bottom of the tray or is otherwise difficult to separate and remove from the tray. Examples of conventional dispensers are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,409,027; 5,992,653; 5,542,552; 5,265,738; 5,203,463; 5,190,186; 5,111,942 and 5,024,336, the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein.
A problem with conventional display dispensers is that they are not readily adapted to handle an assortment of products that have fluctuating shelving space requirements. The displays have a multitude of component parts that have to be constantly assembled and disassembled to handle an assortment of differently shaped products and meet ever changing shelving space requirements of seasonal and holiday products such as paper plates and paper napkins. Shelving space is in high demand, and displays must be able to accommodate changes in shelving space requirements when a variety of different artistic designs are made available to consumers, as well as changes in shelving space demand due to periods of high or low sales volume. Parts that are not currently needed for a smaller variety of products in the display must be removed and stored. If one of the parts is damaged or lost, the entire display dispenser may be rendered of limited use. The staff also needs to learn and relearn how to assembly and disassembly the display, and where the parts are stored and any instruction manuals are kept. Yet, assembling and disassembly the displays during busy holiday seasons is an excessive waist of time and a source of frustration for the staff.
Another problem with conventional display dispensers is that they are unnecessarily robust and expensive. The solid and thick walled construction of the display and its tray is unnecessary for many lighter weight products such as paper plates and paper napkins. The low cost and competitive pricing of these types of products also render it commercially impractical to invest in expensive display dispensers, particularly if the display dispenser is not intended for continual use or reuse. The displays are not designed to readily accommodate frequent changes in sales volumes and artistic patterns, such as adding more shelf area or display area for the holidays or the summer picnicking season. Disposing of these robustly designed, reusable and relatively expensive displays is simply impractical.
A further problem with conventional display dispensers is that they are not intended to display an artistic design on a packaged article, particularly when that design faces the top of the package. Packaged products are typically placed on the dispenser with their top side facing up. When the display is on a shelf of a store above or below eye level, the consumer cannot see the design on the top of the product. Even when the product is placed on its side on the display, the front wall of the display blocks a significant portion of the artistic design so that the customer cannot readily see or understand the design. This is a particular concern for cardboard type display dispensers because consumers cannot see through the front wall of the tray to see the design on the plate or napkin.
A still further problem with conventional display dispensers is that they are not meant to handle an assortment of matching sets of products with similar designs that are intended to be sold together. For example, paper plates are frequently sold in a variety of sizes and with a variety of artistic designs. The smaller plate is intended for salad or desert, while the larger plate is intended for the main meal. Each plate has the same or a complimentary artistic design and is intended to provide a matching set of plates. In addition, a variety of paper napkins are often sold with designs that correspond to the plates. A smaller napkin is for a beverage and a larger napkin is for a dinner setting. Conventional display dispensers are not intended to help arrange an assortment of various matching products, particularly when there are several artistic designs involved. Conventional displays that handle a variety of products have rather bulky, multi-piece trays that are difficult to assemble, adjust and disassemble and are intended for continual use or reuse.
A still further problem with conventional display dispensers is that adjacent trays are interlocked so that there is no easy way to reduce the size of the display or shift a particular product over in the display. When a particular product having a particular design in the middle of the display is depleted, there is no easy way to eliminate that portion of the display and shift the remaining columns of product with other designs over in an organized manner so that the similar products bearing the same artistic design remain in alignment on the shelving. An opening remains in the display where the depleted item was located, or the items become misaligned when each package is manually shifted over. When items are shifted over, the staff has to pick up and move each of the many packaged items in the multi-product display. This can be difficult because the clearance between the tops of the packages on the display and the bottom of the next shelf may not allow the staff to easily reach in and grab all of a particular type of product that is stacked on end on a single track of the display dispenser.
A still further problem with conventional display dispensers is that they are not designed to hold the product during shipping. The restockable displays are shipped in a disassembled form and separate from the product. The multi-piece displays must be assembled and are not ready to use when they are received. The correct quantity of product needs to be ordered, and has to be counted out and stocked on the assembled display when both are received.
A still further problem with conventional display dispensers is that are not stackable in an assembled form during storage and shipping. The displays are relatively large and need to be disassembled before they can be shipped or stored in a reasonably compact manner. The trays do not nest one into the other.
The present invention is intended to solve these and other problems.